NO ABORTION FUNDING IN THE BUDGET

NO ABORTION FUNDING IN THE BUDGET

Open Letter to the Illinois General Assembly

May 24th, 2018

On September 28, 2017, Governor Rauner signed into law House Bill 40, which authorizes the use of taxpayer funds for abortions through Medicaid and state employee health insurance. This new mandate is not eligible for reimbursement by the federal government, putting the entire cost on Illinois taxpayers.

House Bill 40 did not contain an appropriation; therefore, funding for elective abortions will come out of state Medicaid and health insurance funding.

No one knows how many more abortions there will be due to House Bill 40, but no matter the number, the principle is the same: our state tax dollars should not go to pay for abortion. You have the opportunity to ensure that no taxpayer money is used to end the life of any unborn child.

We are asking all members of the Illinois General Assembly to refuse to provide the means for House Bill 40 to accomplish its deadly consequences by including language in annual appropriations denying the use of tax dollars for elective abortions.

Due to our less-restrictive laws, in 2016 there was a 40 percent increase in the number of people coming to Illinois from out-of-state to undergo an abortion, forcing Illinois taxpayers not only to pay for abortions of Illinois citizens but of those from out-of-state. House Bill 40 will accelerate this trend.

Please work with us to protect taxpayers and unborn children.

Robert Gilligan, Executive Director

Catholic Conference of Illinois

Dawn Behnke, President

Illinois Federation For Right to Life

Eric Scheidler, Executive Director

Pro-Life Action League

Mary Kate Knorr, Executive Director

Ralph Rivera, Legislative Chairman

Illinois Right to Life Action

Bonnie Quirke, President

Lake County Right to Life

May 1, 2018

Killing unborn children not a human right, says State Department

In presenting the annual U.S. report on global human rights, Ambassador Michael Kozak told reporters that abortion is not a human right and therefore "reproductive rights" was no longer included in the report.

"Reproductive rights" was a rather recent addition to the report, included by the Obama administration that, Kozak claims, never intended the term to include abortion. He said it only acquired that meaning in recent years through its use by partisans on both sides of the abortion debate. If this were true, the question arises as to why the term abortion is used under the "reproductive rights" section in the 2013 report on Ireland. Pro-lifers would point out that at least in general usage, the term has always included abortion. Kozak did correctly describe abortion as a largely unsettled question of national policy around the world.